Cosco reports Q3 loss, but container volumes grow

China Cosco Holding Co. Ltd. said it had a net loss of 737 million yuan renminbi (RMB) ($121 million) in the third quarter, compared to a 1.1 billion RMB loss in the same 2012 period.
Revenue in the quarter was 15.9 billion RMB compared to 19.1 billion RMB in the third quarter of 2012.
China Cosco Holding has operations in container and bulk shipping as well as the terminal business.

Cosco said volume of cargo handled by its container shipping business in the third quarter was 2.3 million TEU, up 7.8 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. Revenue in the container shipping and related businesses was 11.4 million RMB, down 7 percent. In the first nine months it handled 6.4 million TEU, 8.4 percent more than the prior year, but revenue was down 3.5 percent to 31.7 million RMB.

The dry bulk shipping business shipped 50.8 million tons of cargo in the third quarter, a 9.5-percent decrease from the same 2012 period. Shipment turnover was 243.3 billion ton-mlles in the third quarter, down 13.9 percent from the same 2012 quarter.

Total throughput of the group's contanier terminal business was 16.2 million TEU, 8.4-percent more than in the same 2012 period. For the first three months, containers handled are up 10.2 percent over the same period last year to 45.7 million TEU.